Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 July 1945 — Page 14

“The Indianapolis Times

REFLECTIONS—

PAGE 14 -. Tuesday, July 17, 1945

ROY W. HOWARD WALTER LECKRONE . President - Editor Business. Manager ' (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWS2APER)

Owned and published Price in Marion Coun- . daily (except Sunday) by

a week.

Mail rates in Indiana, $5 a year; all other 3tates, U. 8. possessions, Canada and Mexico, 87 cents a

ice, and Audit Bureau of il Circulations. . i

¥ Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way

G. I. MEETS GERMAN CIVILIAN HE big battle over the “nonfrat ban” in Germany has been won by Gen. Common Sense. At least almost won. Hereafter American and British troops may speak to Germans and even exchange smiles. with them—so long as it is all done in public. down in practice.

RILEY 5561

Of all the rules of befuddled bureaucracy brought |

forth by war, this military order against fraternization | with the former enemy after the-armistice certainly was | one of the most ridiculous. Just what bright mind thought | up this one is not known—the author has not rushed forward to claim credit. Gen. “Ike” and Gen. “Monty” get | the blame, but obviously this was a. matter of high poli-

tical policy handed down to them for enforcement, or rather | |

to try to enforce. For that’s the point. Anyone who knows anything | about human nature in general, and the American G. I. | in particular, is aware that such an unnatural ban simply cannot work. get lonely and need to act humanly. They are.going to | speak to girls, regardless. Also, they occasionally want to be decent to an elderly couple or a little child. Americans | are friendly folks, and proud of it. They are the best | advertisement Jor the democracy Germany heeds,

NO G. "iL we ever head of has any y Quatre with the allied policy against a “soft” peace for Germany: Not |

only the Nazis and the militarists and their big business |

partners share the war guilt, but the majority of the German people have heavy responsibility for following Hitler to the bloody end. The policy of a stern peace for the Germans, however, must be applied in a practical way to produce desired results and not boomerang.

The worst” thing" about this ban was-that it injured

the allies more than the Germans. Because allied officers apd men knew it was stupid, if not degrading, the rule “was generally disobeyed. That undermined army discipline and morale—the very things upon which the success of the thankless job of military occupation will depend. Any rule

which invites the army and the ex-enemy population to co- | operate to defy allied authority is more than silly; it is

dangerous. The Russians, who are not exactly softies, were more intelligent from the beginning. We could learn more from their methods in Germany. —

FREE, THE. BUILDING INDUSTRY 7AR MOBILIZER VINSON, soon to- ‘become secretary of the treasury, has called for a thorough examination of the construction industry. We need to do a tremendous power building job, he says. The country can use 1,250,000 new homes each year for 10 years—one-third more than we ever built in the best year. a record annual level of at least 15 billion dollars.

kindred occupations. But the construction industry, pears to have lagged” in improving its methods, its costs and so widening its markets. He sees special need to examine its restrictive practices, ° to materials, labor or financing,” this industry free for the task ahead.

Mr. Vinson says, “ap-

The industry—materials manufacturers and dealers, |

contractors and workers—is caught in a vicious circle. In the past it has swung sharply from intense activity to

stagnation. It has tried to protect itself against instability | by unwise practices. ' Restraints that keep costs up. Price- | fixing agreements, .Collusive arrangements among busi- |

ness firms and between business and unions. Excessive hourly wage rates. ‘And the results have been’ low’ volume of building, low -émployment, low annual earnings. for workers and continued instability.

Somehow this circle must be broken if the construction |

industry is to reach such ‘goals as Mr. Vinson envigions.

Semehow that industry must be stabilized if the country

i8 to have post-war prosperity and high employment. We hope Mr. Vinson will lead on along the line he has indicated.

ALLA NAZIMOVA T was some 30 years ago and the “nickel show’ was growing up, both monetarily and artistically. Friday night, with no home work to do, a fellow could step out to a pictare splurge on a soda and find his way home as late as 11. If, on certain Friday midnights, he felt a bit dizzy, it was not from the soda. It was because he had just seen Nazimova on the screen. Nazimova sent a fellows senses spinning 30 years ago. “Glamour” But Alla Nazimova had whatever “glamour” now means— “Had that plus.. To her was attached a mystery which tossed | tumult into the high school generation, It was a mystery | having to do with her native Russia, a vagiie place of snow, wolves, furs and something called caviar. vears ago all Russian women were slim, like Nazimova. In three subsequent decades Nazimova's charter admirers grew up in years, though hardly in enthusiasm for their Russian idol. They courted her via the box office | through her Hollywood reign until 1925, when she returned | to the stage. The nation's first war year found Nazimova back in Hollywood, aflame with eagerness to resume her rule over the screen. This in competition with the slick chicks and sweater girls of a new era. Dauntless Nazimova looked upon them fondly and hurried along with plans of her own. The other day she died of a heart attack. Boys of 30 years ago looked incredulously at her age. “She was 66.

DON'T TRY IT

g

To a bov of 30 brooding, vital,

00,000 in the recently ended fiscal year: a du count pre hundred billion dollars,

HENRY W. MANZ

ty, 6 cents a copy; deliv. ered by carrier, 20 cents|.

The qualification will soon break |

Normal young men far away from home |

Private and public construction should rise to | cor That | would mean upward of six million jobs in building and |

reducing |

‘whether they apply | and to find ways to set |

was not the word for it that long ago. |

ST a random thought, suggested by thie fact that the | United States government spent slightly more than,

Unusual People By Frank Aston

one of the Japanese group, are sad and silent. show their respect for men they always “walk: back=: wards when leaving a hut. : The Japs say an American fleet recently pushed through the string of Kurile islands and bombed the Jap-held port of Karafuto on Sakhalin island, To the Japs, that's bad. Karafuto is a prime source of oil and fish for Japan. Sakhalin island, about the size of England, lies close to the Russian mainland and north of Japan. It's foggy and wet, with heavy rains in summer, and snow from October to May. Temperatures sometimes dive to 31 below. Natives, both male and female, have long hair all over their bodies. It is heaviest on the head; face and breast. Women let their hair hang to the waist and don't bother to comb it,

Village Stew Pot Never Washed SINCE 1925 Sakhalin island has been divided { between Russia and Japan, with the southern half under Jap control. The natives in the southern half-—population 340,- | 000—are called Ainus. They are a gentle, courteous tribe most times. They seldom bathe, ! Their villages consist of thatched huts, each having a hole in the top for smoke rising from a fire in a | shallow pit dug into the dirt floor. Principally the natives eat fish, but they vary this with deer, bear, dog and other animals. They Kill | deer with arrows, bear with knives. Ainus are great people for. community eating. They group around’ bowls, scooping . out the food with their hands. Ainus show genuine friendship when they help chew one another's food, passing a tough piece of meat from mouth to mouth, They like to prepare stews in the village pot. The | pot acquires a special aroma in time because it never is washed. It is cleaned by sweeping “the interior with the index finger.

Women Not Allowed to Peoy | °* THE AINUS are taller thanthe Japanese. They have dark eyes that- don’t slant, regular features and. extraordinarily. marrow feet. A map. may have a number of wives, all of whom he suspects of being tattle-tales. “Women are not allowed to pray on the theory that

| | Tthey would talk too much to the gods and tell too

many secrets, particularly about their husbands. Wives - seeking to get even for this ‘snub have been known to steal their husbands’ Inaos end hide them. An Inao is a specially carved stick prepared for each hut and considered sacred. Men pray to their Inaos. But when an Inao disappears the husband has nothing to which to pray. He automatically becomes an atheist and therefore a village outcast. When a wife, mother, grandmother or mother-in-law dies the body is buried promptly. = Surviving males try to wipe out all associations with the deceased female and to prevent her ghost from hanging around the home with unfriendly intentions. Consequently it is not .uncommon to burn the house she had occupied.

Rear Bear Cubs for Sacrifice IN THE SUMMER the Ainus go naked but when the snow flies they bundle up-in all manner of fur combinations. The bear, furnishing meat and fur, is- the basis of one of their religious cults. The Ainus catch bear cubs and turn them over to the women who tend them carefully and have even peen known to suckle them. When the bear reaches the age of three it is sacrificed with ceremony. Once a year the villagers put on a bear feast which often turns into something. of a religious festival and frequently concludes with ev erybody getRing" ‘plastered On, Tice “BESF AN EI RGR The Ainus hunt wild animals in the heaviest thickets, having learned that the animals like to live

mosquitoes. These «insects. are so ferocious that they kill many newly: born calves and colts unless the youngsters are covered immediately after birth. Sakhalin mosquitoes are like American mosquitoes in one respect—only | the females bite. Fons Sakhalin would be a good place for the army to try out its new, deadly insect killer, DDT.

cw FOREIGN AFFAIRS— Big Three By Wm. Philip Simms

WASHINGTON, - July ‘17. — Through President Truman. at the Big Three meeting at Potsdam, the people, of the United States are about to make some of the’ ‘most | important decisions in all their history. Not even the 1815 Congress of Vienna faced such tremendous issues. The Napoleonic wars of 130 years | ago left Europe comparatively intact. Today nearly i-the entire continent is a shambles, materially, morally and politically. And the world’s future depends on whether President Truman, Prime Minister Churchill | and Marshal Stalin can lay new structure. This means, so far as the American people are concerned, that the President must commit the United States to international co-operation far beyond any- | thing ever before contemplated, let alone attempted. Actually the Big Three meeting at Potsdam is | more imporfant than the United Nations conference | at” San Francisco At San Francisco rules were | | ormuared for safeguarding the future peace. Pots- | dam will largely determine whether or not the San | Francisco rules will, in fact, be workable. And they won't be workable, in the long Tun, unless the .Big | | Three can agree on a reasonably just peace.

' | Peace Terms Not Settled

WHAT IS widely overlooked is that peace terms | have yet to be agreed upon. In fact, there-is considerable doubt that a full dress peace conference will be held. Already some of the allies have made unilateral and bilateral decisions vitally affecting the

peace, often without bothering to consult other inter- |

ested parties. Potsdam will have to review these faits accompli and reconcile them, Jf possible, with decisions | yet to be made. The Big Three also must consider: . What .is to be done with Germany and the German: people; Burope’s ‘new boundaries, 2. Allied policy with regard to Poland, Fstonia, Latvia, Finland, Romania, Turkey Middle East, Hungary and Austria. 3. The role of France in Europe. Up to the present, France has heen absent from these meetings despite the=fact that she will play a vital role in the world, [ especially in western Europe, - { 4, Problems presented by Ttaly and Italian colonies, 5. Allied policy toward other neutrals. 6. The question of "lifting the news blackout now virtually .complete in zones ‘occupied or controlled by Soviet Russia. 7. European relief-—social, financial and economics and possibly 8. Russo-Japanese neutrality,

Lithuania, and the

No Voice for Little People

letting them be heard admittedly is an anachronism affer a war which presumably was fought partly in defense of the sovereignty of small nations. And much has been said about the autocratic behavior of the Big Four (Britain, Russia, Austria and Prussia) at the Congress of Vienna. But there the little nations were at least permitted to, talk, even if ey “were hot, always liStened to. . At Potsdam, ‘it seems, the little peoples of the world will be more or less voigéless—unless, that is, | President Truman speaks up for them as some behe p ‘public ¢

WASHINGTON.—The women on Sakhalin island,’ To |

there to escape the biting beetles, Ries, gnats and {example, both for victor and van-

the foundations for a |

Spain, Switzerland and

SETTLING THE fate of small nations without’

“COMPLETE POLICY MUST BE READY” By E. R. Egan, 701 Markwood ave. We are now witnessing the disintegration of the Japanese nation —the Japanese empire—in exactly the same way Germany “fought to the last man,” which turned out to {be their oil wells, transportation, navy, air power and what not. Not the least of which was being overpowered by superior air strategy, superior strategy generally and more efficient up-to-date mole equipment. But disintegration” | is already in be ready to take over the extraordinary exigencies of the situation, and

operation in Germany today would long since have proved an inspiring

quished, not the least of which would be the utter futility of further devastating the nation their mili- | tarists were committed to preserv{ing and enhancing. Basing calculations of the proba- | | bilities of the duration of the war upon the-length -of time Japan has! already been at war in China and |

the rate of the American progress, {

leaving Russia out of our calcula | tions altogether, it is difficult to fea- | ture the Japanese, tough as they | undoubtedly are, staying’ in the war| this year, indeed even a few months. | The bombings Germany was sub- | jected. to not only destroyed her equipment but completely destroyed | any cohesive comprehensive plan of | operation as the surrender en masse | of the German armies is the con-| vincing evidence. It is not reasonable in any sense of the word to think Japel can take it any better than the GENaans did. Japanese militarists know they are beaten even as the Germans knew they were beaten long before they| sued for peace. But return to consider a plan id take the place of the absolutism | they have operated under—and this | {does not necessarily mean Uncle | {Sam in the role of Santa Claus with | a navy loaded with hams and kraut | {and trimmings for the poor defeated | |Germans and Japs, but a program |to inculcate in them a little individ- | {ual responsibility for renewing trac{tors in lieu of power divisions {and ‘suicide bombers with the em{phasis on the advantages in a diversified diet and a little individual {thinking on their part to stimulate |the superiority to the gun-toting

Hoosier Forum

evidence and a complete policy must |.

death

~ [Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns, religious con‘troversies excluded. Because ‘of the volume received, letters should be limited to 250 words. Letters must be signed. Opinions set forth here are those of the writers, and publication in no way implies agreement with those opinions by The Times. The _ Times assumes no responsibility for the return of manuscripts and cannot enter correspondence regarding them.)

itn ait Sve SR alte polity sa Rilitany. swank thas brought. theny to sant

In

profit, ‘ the Aryan-Nipponese folk | their belief in the lore will be relegated to the limbo |

this pass.

With this lesson learned to their|For by such justification they. deny

phantasmagorian politics of | totalitarianism. » » » “GET MORE ‘ESSENTIAL’ MEN TO FRONT”

By Pvt. Kenneth E. Kingery, California

As in every barracks when the G. 1.’s get to talking about home and their future, the subject always comes up about what they will have to look forward to when they come | home. : I think I can say truthfully that the greater percentage of the boys think that when they get back they will have to look for another job other than the one they had upon entering the army. They feel that as soon as the war is over they will be the forgotten men and all the sweat and heartaches and worries they have ‘had will all be for naught as far as they are concerned. And they feel like I do as to the unfairness of the draft. Some families are taken to the last boy and, plus the dangers of combat (which is where I am going very soon) you begin to see what the married man has to worry about, and why he can’t possibly make as good a soldier as he should. So I still say that if they had carried it out like it was first intended, there would not have been nearly as many “hardships: and as many homes broken up as there will-be, leaving thousands of orphan children. So I say, get some more of those so-called “essential,” single and childless men in the fighting front,

Ft.

Side Glances—By Galbraith

“I wholly disagree with what you say, but will defend to the

PEACE OUT OF HATE"

your right to say it.” “WE CANNOT FORM

By Mrs. Henry W, Shea, Indianapolis If a apeace conference can

down to the peace table with representatives of countries who have been the enemies to all progress of peace, why could they mot have assembled about this table before millions of the sons of all nations had.been sacrificed in order to bring this conference into being? We are gravely fearful if any group of men, who can find any justification in war for any reason

sit

Ord,’ ; : of men? Before the justification of

.|mob which had hung Him there.

|- forsake sult owt mister onal

can form the foundation upon

teaching of | Christ. Upon which basis only can peace be negotiated. We cannot form peace out of hate and vengeance. | Could not a more successful peace {have been planned before hate and

‘war hatred had been preached from the pulpits of our churches, rehearsed again and again. by war commentators over the air and printed at great length in the columns of our newspapers—to convince those who do not think for themselves but allow their destinies to be guided by men instead of God, who gave His son that men might be free and have peace | on earth—whose formula was not hate and vengeance, war and mur- | der, but peace, forgiveness and love. Can we expect peace to come from the minds of men who do not follow the teaching of Jesus, men who believe in, practice and nurture war in their own breasts? Can the plan for peace building come from men who meet for that purpose and then spend the first three hours in discord over who shall have the most power? When the “first hours should have been spent in prayer, praying that power from God might be given them to plan a lasting peace. We hope that they remember they reap what they sow. And that the men before whom this document will be placed for ratification will consider well its contents and remember that also. Can we be so blind that we do not see that the stage is being set for the third world war? And the slaughter of our grandsons. Unless we exercise more of the spirit of Christ, the spirit which He showed as He hung upon the cross and looked down upon. the merciless

spat. upon and heaped upon Him every injustice in the world, but in keeping with His teaching pray for them, saying, “Forgive them Father, they know not what they do.” Let us not in our’ moment of triumph fail to recognize our golden opportunity to give to the world a glowing example of the Christianity we have tried to portray through the hundreds of men and women who have given their lives also that His gospel might be given to the world, Missionaries that will have lived In vain if we fail to re-enact their teachings. “It would seem that unless more Godly men are called to sit at the peace tables that we are doomed to failure just as we have in the past. Unless we can follow the teaching. of Christ in this tremendous task of reconstruction and incorporate into this document of security and peace: more of the principles laid down for us in His sermon on the Mount we have little hope for

They that observe lying vanities 2:8.

dating poate suka et

vengeance were born ‘in the hearts|-

-and four should be completed by June 1.

POLITICAL SCENE—

State Pride.

By Thomas L. Stokes

WASHINGTON, July 17. — The

| from eight Midwest and mountain

states about the description of " thelr country in an OWI magazine distributed in Russia, The article was written by two Russians who were not quite up-to-date in their research. Despite all the talk-of “One World” since the late Wendell L. Willkie coined the phrase, our country still is a nation of 48 sovereign states, which is entirely normal and healthy. For it-shows we still have roots in some one spot, specially favored as we see it, in spite of the way we can jump about, easily and swiftly from one place to another, There is still intense state pride in Kansas, Nes braska, North and:South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado and Utah, the states treated in the dis= tasteful magazine ‘plece, as there is in Georgia and Pennsylvania, Vermont and California, Texas and the others. Every state is strictly American, and therefore the love bf a particular spot represents a love of the whole,’ Citizens of these: States, being typically American, are outspoken, ahd what we say about each other is really much ‘worse than anything a couple of Russians have said, unwittingly, after scanning out-of-date material, Perhaps they. were thinking of parts of their own country—and with fond recollections.

Italy? You Can Have |t THE MIDWEST suffered in the idol- breaking and disillusioned ‘20s from a rash of novels by native writers who tried to outdo each other—from unkempt rooms in Greenwich village—about the drabness of living in their own country, particularly the small towns, The style was started by Sinclair Lewis in “Main Street.” And yet nobody went rushing away from those towns, They liked them, They still like em. The South—and I Speak here personally—perhaps has had to take more than any other section af the eountry and longer, from the time of the Civil war and nof, only from “Yankee” writers but from its ow native sons and daughters who went away, took a backward look and found many things to criticize among their own. Yet they retained a deep love of many things Southern, “Jeeter Lester,” created by. Erskine Caldwell of Georgia, ‘became notorious nationally, Yet people of the community liked the show when it was put on in a big barn in the Tobacco Road country along the Savannah river, Men who looked and acted a good deal like Jeeter went away from the play chuckling about someone else in the neighborhood whom they identified as Jeeter. Italy to me has always been one of the mos$ beautiful of countries. But when I was there a few months ago, discoursing about its loveliness, I was stopped short by American soldiers who had been there for months. They had been fighting their way ‘up the peninsula and now were idle in lonely moun» tain fastnesses, They sald: “Brother, you can have it.” 3 They wanted to get home to Kansas “and Nebraska,

Farley Remark Recalled AT THE two ‘Russians said, in a matter-ofs fact way, about the Midwest and the mountain states, is nothing like -the tart descriptions you get from] returning soldiers of places where they had to serve which the steamship folders and the tourists guide books paint so luxuriantly. You may recall what trouble Jim Farley got into in 1936 when he described Alf M. Landon, the Republican presidential candidate, as “a typical governor of a typical prairie state.” Yet President Roosevelt carried Kansas that year. One day during the 1928 campaign, after we. had been traveling all day across North Dakota, someon asked Al Smith what he thought of it. £¥ag 2 Inst git hy hy jhe ing,” barked the son of New York's East Side. I was in North and South Dakota in 1937 ‘with President Roosevelt when that country was burned up with drought. The jack rabbits sat placidly in the desolate landscape watching the train go by, The federal government wanted to move the people out of there. But would they move? No, they loved that country. I saw the same thing in the Everglades of Florida, It was only a few months after the terrific 1928 hurri« cane which had washed Lake Okechobee. out of its banks in-a ravage of destruction. The people wera moving back again into the swamps. They loved -it, Perhaps the two Russians have excited congress and the Chambers of Commerce more than the people, For the‘people know, and they don't worry much about the Russians, :

IN WASHING TON— Rail Crisis By Peter Edson

WASHINGTON, July 17—Cutting off Pullman service for rides of less than 450 miles is just the first bite, says ODT Director J. Monroe Johnson. Next bite will be to cut Pullmans off runs of say 750, 900, or 1000 miles or under. Next bite will be a straight percentage cut of all remaining sleeping car service. Maybe both these bites will be taken at once, Should these cuts still not provide enough sleeps ing cars for the movement of troops, then get ready | for travel rationing of some kind, possibly & system of priorities such as is used by the airlines. If travel rationing’ comes, it probably will be bee fore the Christmas holidays rush, If the railroads can just manage to squeeze through the holidays with their peak travel loads, there may not have to be travel rationing. As far as the holiday travel rush is concerned, says Col. Johnson, paraphrasing the. once-popular song, this is “Where Every Day's a Holiday.” Only instead of the next line being, “And Skies Are Always Blue," it’s “Rush, Multiplied by Two.” Best guess is that U. S, rail travel may ‘be tight for another two years. Only escape is for the war against Japan to end in less than a year.

Long, Long Rail Trail A-Winding

IAT M people don’t realize na. this rail

Pg is. that it takes seven long train rides to get a

soldier redeployed from Wttrope to-the-Pacific.. ; He lands at an Atlantic port. First ride is to the staging area, prior to furlough. Then a ride home, Back to assembly center a month later. Move to base camp, to training area, to staging area, to port of embarkation. Peak of all this travel will come in February and March. Moves one and two will end in April. “Three The others will go on ferjanother three months. What is happening is that all the troops that were moved to Europe in the 40 months after Pearl Har« bor are being brought back home and moved to the Pacific in 10 months. And this involves moving all these troops all the way across the continent’ west bound, instead of just part way across the continent as they were when eastbound.

Civilian Travel Big Puzzle ADD TO this burden a further balleup--originally it had been planned to string this redeployment over 18 months. Some place along the line the army dee cided this time should. be cut practically in half. So, § instead of handling the scheduled 150,000 troops in § | June, 205,000 were unloaded at Atlantic ports. That, | “was when ODT had to get tough and cut off all Pulls §

man rides of under 450 miles,

The real cause for worry in this predicament is what to do about the absolutely essential civilian travel. If businessmen can’t move freely, the war effort, the government and the whole civilian economy will suffer, But how to give them travel priorities § | and keep unessential travelers off the railroads iu the : er vane job tor OP, which

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